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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26551327">It takes a village</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/theWholeShebang/pseuds/theWholeShebang'>theWholeShebang</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Lost and found [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ocean's 8 (2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, Ximena - Freeform, parenting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:20:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,741</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26551327</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/theWholeShebang/pseuds/theWholeShebang</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes a village to raise a child. Luckily Lou and Debbie don't have to do it alone. Each chapter will consist out of one of the team members having some cute interaction with Ximena.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lou Miller/Debbie Ocean</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Lost and found [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1441927</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>It takes a village</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>It was Lou who broke the silence. ‘I actually agree with you’, she said.</p><p>‘You do?’, replied Daphne and Debbie both in surprise.</p><p>Lou jerked her head with an annoyed expression and shoved her chair back a bit.</p><p>‘Don’t make me regret it’, she warned Daphne. ‘But yeah, you are right. Clothes can be part of your identity and I think it is important that Ximena starts to find her own again.’</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Can we all just be annoyed about the fact that my grammar help constantly wants to change moms to mom's. Like Ximena has two moms, how rude!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>January - Freshman year</p><p>‘No, I just don’t think it is a good idea’, repeated Debbie for what felt like the hundredth time.</p><p>‘Why not?’, whined Daphne. ‘What even is the point of having a daughter if you are not going to dress her in pretty dresses?’</p><p>Debbie just shook her head, not even bothering to verbally reply to Daphne. She focused her attention on the screen in front of Lou. Her girlfriend was working through some accounts to safely launder the money from their latest scheme.<br/>When Daphne opened her mouth again, Debbie cut her to it.</p><p>‘Listen, Daphne, it is very sweet of you to want to take Ximena shopping, but right now is not a good moment. Ximena is still very shy and we need to be very gentle with her.’</p><p>Daphne looked offended. ‘I can be gentle.’</p><p>‘Can you?’</p><p>‘Why do act like I’m the most obnoxious person around?’</p><p>‘You are the most obnoxious person around’, joked Debbie, but her grin faded when she saw that Daphne actually looked a bit hurt.</p><p>‘Listen, it is not you, but Ximena is not so great to shop with at the moment.’, clarified Lou, looking up from the laptop and joining the conversation.</p><p>‘I just feel like she should walk around in her own clothes’, tried Daphne in earnest. ‘She is always walking around in your sweaters or Lou’s tops and I feel like a girl should own her own clothes.’</p><p>It stayed quiet after that, as Debbie thought of a gentler way to let the actress down.</p><p>It was Lou who broke the silence. ‘I actually agree with you’, she said.</p><p>‘You do?’, replied Daphne and Debbie both in surprise.</p><p>Lou jerked her head with an annoyed expression and shoved her chair back a bit.</p><p>‘Don’t make me regret it’, she warned Daphne. ‘But yeah, you are right. Clothes can be part of your identity and I think it is important that Ximena starts to find her own again.’</p><p>Debbie sighed, except for the two pairs of plain and quite cheap blue jeans Lou had picked up weeks ago, Ximena did mostly walk around in borrowed clothes. With the girl starting school soon maybe it was better if she was not walking around in clothes that were too big.</p><p>‘Yes, but babe, with Daphne?’, she questioned worriedly. ‘Ximena barely bought something when she was with the two of us.’</p><p>Lou shrugged. ‘Daphne can be annoyingly convincing’, she said. ‘No offense.’ The last part was directed at the younger brunette.</p><p>Daphne flashed a smile. ‘None taken.’ She was already on her way to the stairs. ‘Ximena, honey, we are going on a little shopping trip.’, she shouted up the stairs.</p><p>--</p><p>Ximena slowly followed Daphne through the second shop, silently accepting the few pieces of clothing that Daphne had thrown in her arms. She sneakily tried to look at the price tag, but Daphne caught her anyway.</p><p>‘Don’t’, said the older woman, turning around and bending down a little so she was at eye-level with Ximena. ‘Don’t check the tags, Ximena. I can afford it.’<br/>She let out a small laugh. ‘I am an internationally acclaimed actress, so you know, I have the money.’</p><p>Ximena stared at the woman in front of her, not daring to object, afraid that she would offend the actress if she did not believe that she could afford it.</p><p>‘Why don’t we go fit those clothes?’, nodded Daphne at the pile in her arms. Ximena bopped her head and followed the woman towards the fitting rooms.</p><p>To her great relief Daphne left her alone in the fitting room. Ximena stared at herself in the fitting room mirror, she looked better than before, but she still did not like looking at her underwear-clad reflection.<br/>After more than two months with Debbie and Lou, she looked healthier. There were almost no scars and marks left on her body, only the ones that would be permanent. She had also gained some weight already; her eyes did not lay hollow in her face anymore and not every rib was sticking out but still she did not like the way her hips poked out of her body and the prominent way her collarbones stuck out.<br/>With a sigh she grabbed the first piece of clothing from the pile Daphne had handed her and tried it on.<br/>She did not hate the clothes Daphne had picked out for her; most things fitted her well enough even though some of it was a little bit too glittery for her likings.</p><p>Daphne popped a piece of gum in her mouth and looked up when Ximena emerged from the fitting room.<br/>‘Did you like the clothes?’, she asked the girl.<br/>Ximena nodded. ‘Yes, it was very pretty’, she replied, carefully hanging all the clothing back on the rack.<br/>‘Anything you want to keep?’, Daphne tried gently. Lou and Debbie’s warnings not to force the girl still fresh in her head.<br/>Ximena stayed quiet, but Daphne was determined not to give up. She guided the girl to one of the plush sofas in the fitting room area and sat down next to her.</p><p>‘Can you tell me why you don’t want to buy clothes?’, she asked.<br/>Ximena played with her fingers and shrugged. ‘I don’t need anything’, she mumbled.</p><p>‘Surely you need clothes’, laughed Daphne. Ximena did not respond.<br/>‘Isn’t it nice to choose some pretty clothes?’, she tried again.</p><p>Ximena looked at her with a haunted face. Her eyes clearly betrayed an internal struggle, but Daphne did not know what the problem was.<br/>To be fair, she hardly knew Ximena. She knew that Lou and Debbie had picked the girl up in a casino, but why and how was still a bit of a mystery.<br/>Yet like everyone else, she had quickly felt a surge of protection for the young girl. Underneath the silence and off guardedness, Ximena gave of such vulnerable need for protection. None of the women who visited the loft could ignore it.<br/>Even Daphne, who never really cared much about strangers nor kids, wanted to make the girl a little bit happier.<br/>That truly was the reason that she had wanted to take Ximena shopping. Not to prove that she could be more convincing than Debbie Ocean, but because she wanted Ximena to be a little bit less subdued.<br/>She may not understand what Ximena had been through or why an orphaned girl from Mexico was suddenly found in the middle of the night in a casino. Maybe she did not even want to think too hard about all the horrible things that had let the girl to New York.<br/>But she did know that shopping had never made anything worse.</p><p>That was until now, because Ximena looked truly upset by the possibility of buying new clothes and it was freaking Daphne out a bit. She wanted to lift the spirit of the girl not upset her even more.</p><p>Ximena was still looking at her straight, her big dark eyes seemed glued to Daphne.</p><p>‘I don’t want to choose my clothes.’, whispered the girl so softly that Daphne had trouble understanding. ‘You can choose them.’<br/>‘Why not?’, questioned Daphne surprised.<br/>Ximena looked up and to Daphne’s great worry there were tears in her eyes. ‘I don’t want it to be my fault.’<br/>Daphne’s features softened as she looked at the fourteen year old in front of her.<br/>‘What do you mean, you don’t want it to be your fault?’, she asked. ‘Whatever could be your fault?’<br/>Ximena stared at Daphne but seemed at a loss for words. Daphne was not sure if it was because the girl did not know how to say it in English or did not know how to explain the problem anyway.</p><p>‘I’m not a whore’, said Ximena suddenly and fiercely.</p><p>Daphne nodded, a little shocked. Not really sure how to respond.<br/>‘I know’, she said earnestly. ‘Who says you are?’</p><p>Ximena was staring at her lap. ‘they choose me.’, she whispered.</p><p>Daphne did not know who “they” were, but she felt something rumble deep inside her. She was beyond done with society shaming girls into what they could and could not wear. She also was slightly disturbed by the notion that “they” choose Ximena as a whore, she was completely uncomfortable with those implications.</p><p>She did not know how to respond to the girl in front of her and she wished Debbie of Lou were there to help her. She did not know if she should address what the girl said or that she should call a cab and go back to the loft and let Lou and Debbie handle this delicate situation.</p><p>But she was stubborn and she wanted to be helpful, so Daphne decided to take the hard route. She took a deep breath and tried to speak as clearly and firmly as she could, but her voice trembled a little bit, since this topic hit close to home for the actress.</p><p>‘Listen Ximena, I don’t know you that well and I don’t really know what happened to you, but I know this: The way you dress does not give people the right to treat you different than you want them to. You could wear whatever you want and people need to treat you with respect. If you say no, that means no. No matter what you are wearing and what you look like.’</p><p>The next sentence came softer. ‘It is not your fault that you are pretty and you can be pretty and smart, or pretty and sexy or pretty and shy.’</p><p>She stared at Ximena. ‘Being pretty does not define you. Just be yourself.’</p><p>Daphne took a deep breath and with years of practice she got her emotions back under control.</p><p>‘So, I suggest’, she continued firmly. ‘that you choose the clothes you like and if anyone has a problem with that, they have me to deal with. And Rose. And Amita. And Constance. And Nine. And Tammy. And Lou and Debbie of course.’</p><p>Ximena gave a small smile at the mention of all the women who would now be in her corner and averted her eyes at the pile of clothes.</p><p>Shyly she started pulling some items from the pile and Daphne felt her chest swell with an unfamiliar emotion.</p><p>Also, she could not wait to see Lou’s and Debbie’s faces when she would return with Ximena and several bags of clothing.</p>
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